Defense: Man didn't intend to hit wife with van

The jury heard opening statements in the case of Zohn Wang Kub Yang Monday in Outagamie County court. He is accused of ramming his wife with a vehicle, severing her leg.
Alison Dirr/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Buy Photo

Zohn Wang Kub Yang appears in court Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, at the Outagamie County Justice Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is accused of ramming his wife with a vehicle, severing her leg.(Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

APPLETON - A jury will determine whether a Little Chute man intentionally rammed his wife with the family van in April 2015, severing her leg.

The trial of Zohn Wang Kub Yang, 41, began Monday afternoon in Outagamie County court.

Outagamie County District Attorney Carrie Schneider said in her opening statement that Yang was angry with his wife because he thought she was having an affair, which his wife denies. On April 27, 2015, he drove into her as she walked to the home the couple shared with their children, Schneider said.

Yang parked in the driveway, and his wife, Pachia Lor, got out of the car. He said he was going to get a lottery ticket, Schneider said. Lor walked through the large garage door and up to the service door that led to the kitchen, where two children were doing their homework. She was standing on a step in the garage and was pushed through the door when Yang hit her, Schneider said.

"The defendant then ... sees his opportunity and he takes it," Schneider said. "Intentionally takes actions to make good on the threats that he had made to Pachia that whole week."

Not so, defense attorney John Miller Carroll told the jury: Negligence and stress led to this crash — not an intention to hit her, he said.

Carroll said Yang told her before she got out of the van he was driving that he had a dream that they had won the lottery so he was going to go buy a lottery ticket. Yang usually bought a lottery ticket every day and was in a rush to get to the gas station.

"He's going to testify and he's going to tell you that when you put this vehicle into reverse — it was a 2006 Honda Odyssey — when it hits reverse, it clicks so ... there's no doubt that it's in reverse," Carroll told the jury. "He's going to tell you that he believed that the car was in reverse because it made that clicking sound. Drive is very close to reverse on this vehicle."

Yang stepped on what he thought was the brake when the car started going forward, but his foot slipped and hit the accelerator, Carroll said.

After he hit her, Yang got out of the vehicle and went inside. He told his daughter to call 911 and he put a tourniquet on his wife's leg.

"I think it's clear that ... the blood loss would have killed her if he hadn't taken those actions," Carroll said, adding that Yang didn't try to flee.

Both prosecution and defense attorneys referred to statements Lor made at the hospital about the crash being intentional. Carroll said Lor would testify that just after the crash she might have thought it was intentional, but after looking at physical evidence now believes it was an accident.

Schneider told the jury that a week of threats and terror preceded the crash.

She read from statements in one profanity-laden incident that was secretly recorded by one of the couple's daughters. The recording captured Yang threatening to kill Lor and telling her not to make him mad or he will start "killing people," according to passages Schneider read aloud.

That was the beginning of "the week that Pachia and her kids lived through," Schneider said.

She said Lor had told others about the threats of violence and her concerns, including asking a sister-in-law to take the guns from the home. Someone who works for Lor will also testify that she heard Yang make threats to hurt and kill her on another day when Yang came to Lor's office, Schneider said.

Yang is charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, aggravated battery with intent to cause great bodily harm, strangulation and suffocation, endangering safety with a dangerous weapon, two counts of criminal damage to property and three counts of disorderly conduct, all as domestic abuse.

Schneider intends to prove to jurors that the incident involving the van would have been an intentional homicide if Lor hadn't been positioned on a step directly in front of the door in the garage.

All but the attempted homicide and aggravated battery charges stem from previous incidents, including in the week before Lor lost her leg.

Carroll questioned the relevance of those incidents and said none of them were reported to the police, so there is no documentation.

"What happened on the 27th is separate and distinct from what happened the week before," he said.